


Figuring Him Out

by StevetheIcecube



Series: The Beauty of Tony Stark and Tony Feels [5]
Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adults Watching A Kids Movie, Male Friendship, Movie Night, Sickfic, breathing problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-16
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-26 19:26:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/969420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve has never really understood Tony, and he liked him about as much as he knew him. But when Tony gets a minor cold that ends in a lot of his medical problems surfacing, Steve learns that there is a lot more to Tony than the mask.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Steve never understood Tony Stark.

He was a stubborn ass who didn't care for anyone, it seemed, but himself. He claimed he wasn't a team player. But why was he always the one helping the others when they got into a fix? He said he was in a relationship, but Steve saw Pepper around the Tower more than Tony did. And the only words he'd heard them share were arguments.

He claimed that he hated Steve, but why did he look so lonely whenever he was around? And why was there so many very old items of Captain America merchandise around?

Tony just didn't make sense.

Especially when, one day, Tony came down to that weekly Avengers pizza dinner and movie. His eyes were bloodshot, his face slightly puffy and he had dark shadows under his eyes. He seemed quieter than usual.

About halfway through the meal, Natasha looked sternly at Tony. "Tony, what's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." Tony replied, though Steve noticed his voice was a little thick and his breath afterwards was a wet-sounding wheeze.

"You're having trouble breathing." Steve stated. "Don't try lying, I used to have asthma."

Tony sighed. "I have a cold. And I always have trouble breathing."

Steve frowned, concerned, but a look from Tony convinced them all to leave the topic alone.

Tony fell asleep during movie night. It happened often with Bruce, but Tony had never fallen asleep during a team night before.

Tony was snoring quite loudly, and drooling on the sofa. Clint moved to wake him up, annoyed that How To Train Your Dragon (Clint liked children's movies, and it was his choice.) had been interrupted, but Steve shook his head. "Don't wake him." He mumbled. "He looks tired."

Steve was forced to wake Tony up, though, when he started moaning in his sleep.


	2. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony wakes up and faces unwanted worry.

Tony's eyes flew open, and he sat up sharply. He felt his breath get caught in his chest. Damn reactor. And damn cold. Freaking common cold. He needed to invent a cure for that.

Steve. In his face. Shit, where did he fall asleep? Right. Movie night. He had a nightmare during movie night.

Well, that game was up. All his façades were falling apart around the Avengers. He'd been able to pretend that there was nothing wrong with his mental health. He pawned everything off on being eccentric, and it worked.

"Tony?" Steve asked, and then turned to Clint. "Pause the movie, please. I don't care if Astrid or whatever her name is just found Hiccup." He added sternly when Clint made a mild noise of protest. Clint paused the movie.

"I'm tired, I'll just go-" Tony started, but Steve cut him off.

"No. You should stay, Tony." He said. "It will help you stay awake."

"I just said I was tired." Tony said sharply. "That means I want to go to my own bed and sleep."

"No you don't, Tony." Bruce said. "You'll go down to your workshop and get drunk, not sleep."

Tony made a sound of disbelief. These people couldn't know him that well, they shouldn't, it had taken Pepper a few years to work that kind of thing out about him. "You shouldn't be drunk when you're ill." Natasha added.

Tony sighed. "I don't need you to babysit me. I'm a grown man, not five."

"Five year olds don't drink alcohol." Clint interrupted.

"I bet you'd had alcohol by the time you were five, Barton." Tony snapped. He'd seen the file. "I certainly had."

Tony saw Steve wince, but brushed it off. "Tony, I don't need you to tell me what you saw in that nightmare, but it was bad and you won't be going back to sleep anytime soon." Steve said firmly. "Stay and watch the rest of the movie."

Tony frowned and sulked for the rest of the movie (but he was too mature to sulk if anyone asked), but he found that it was getting harder to breathe, and the wheeze was getting more pronounced. The second the movie finished he went straight into a coughing fit, which hurt his chest and wracked his whole body. He wasn't oblivious to the concerned looks from his teammates, either. "Ouch." He rasped when the coughing finally came to a close. "Well, I'm going to bed."

"Come down to breakfast in the morning." Steve said, and the warning in his tone was clear. "And don't do anything that will damage your health any further."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, I'm gonna start keeping a tally of how many times in a row I can spell Natahsa (shit) right. I can never spell her name without having a typo crisis. I've once done it seven times in a row without getting it right.


	3. Realize

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve goes up to see Tony, but before he even reaches Tony he realizes why the man is so hard to get a read on.

Steve would admit to being one of those nice neighbours that were always around and somehow always knew when a neighbour was sick. He was the one who understood, and brought chicken soup to the sick person.

The problem was, Tony wouldn't appreciate that. But there wasn't really that much that Steve could do.

But Steve made some chicken soup anyway and took it up to the penthouse, where Tony had been holed up since the previous night. He had not gone to the workshop and that worried Steve, because that was where Tony spent most of his time. Which probably meant that his cold was pretty bad.

And Steve had heard the way Tony was struggling to breathe. He hadn't heard that in Tony before. It sounded painful, and from the faint memories Steve had of before the weak asthma medication they had been able to afford, it would be very painful for Tony. He had only weak memories of the times he spent lying on the floor, trying to take breaths when his lungs simply wouldn't accept the air.

The penthouse looked just as deserted as it always did. It was plain to anyone that stepped in here that Tony didn't really live there. Because he really didn't. It was clean and spacious, stylish and completely modern in a way that always made Steve on edge, even after a few months of living in the futuristic tower.

But he knew Tony was here, in his bedroom, possibly even asleep. That was what JARVIS had said. Well, he'd said that Tony was bordering on sleep but had not yet quite reached it, so that probably meant that he would be nearly asleep now. But Tony had been getting a lot of sleep recently, according to JARVIS, so Steve wouldn't feel too bad about waking him up. And Bruce said that the chicken soup smelled great and Tony would love it, so Tony wouldn't (hopefully) mind much either.

But then again, he was Tony Stark. There was no telling on what he would think or do. He was still regarded one of the strangest things on planet earth, or so said the press.

And Steve didn't understand Tony. He thought he had, when he'd met him on the Helicarrier. But then he carried a missile into space. There was more than met the eye to him and Steve had no idea how much there was beneath that man he had met and pushed around.

Tony was just performing to the crowd. That thought struck Steve the second he reached the door to Tony's bedroom. Tony was doing what he himself had done so long ago. He was just dressing up and going out to impress people, to raise sales. He'd even heard Pepper say it to Tony, that he needed to go out there and impress the board members, the press, the share-holders.

Tony was trying to be hard to figure out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was hard to write. No idea why. My chest is a bit tight, actually. I'm sick.


End file.
